As Shakespeare was a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Company at that
time, it is certain that he must have been well acquainted with the older
play of _Hamlet_, one of a series of dramas on the then favorite theme
of revenge, aided by the supernatural intervention of a ghost.
There are a few other early allusions to the first _Hamlet_ which appear
to deserve quotation. "His father's empire and government was but as the
_Poeticall Furie in a Stageaction_, compleat, yet with horrid and wofull
Tragedies: a first, but no second to any _Hamlet_; and that now
_Reuenge_, iust _Reuenge_ was coming with his Sworde drawne against him,
his royall Mother, and dearest Sister to fill up those Murdering
Sceanes."--Sir Thomas Smithe's _Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia_,
1605. "Sometimes would he overtake him and lay hands upon him like a
catch-pole, as if he had arrested him, but furious Hamlet woulde
presently eyther breake loose like a beare from the stake, or else so
set his pawes on this dog that thus bayted him that, with tugging and
tearing one another's frockes off, they both looked like mad Tom of
Bedlam."--Decker's _Dead Terme_, 1608. "If any passenger come by and,
wondering to see such a conjuring circle kept by hel-houndes, demaund
what spirits they raise there, one of the murderers steps to him,
poysons him with sweete wordes and shifts him off with this lye, that
one of the women is falne in labor: but if any mad Hamlet, hearing this,
smell villanie and rush in by violence to see what the tawny divels are
dooing, then they excuse the fact, lay the blame on those that are the
actors, and perhaps, if they see no remedie, deliver them to an officer
to be lead to punishment.
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